Russians vote in final day of parliamentary elections

Russians are casting their ballots on Sunday, the final day of the 2026 parliamentary elections, with the pro‑Putin United Russia party expected to secure another victory after having won every Duma contest since 2003. The election is the first held since Moscow’s full‑scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, offering a potential gauge of domestic sentiment toward the war. Opposition to the conflict has been further constrained: in August, the Supreme Court removed the Yabloko party— the sole anti‑war political force—from the ballot, though some of its candidates may still run as independents in individual districts. Yabloko co‑founder Grigory Yavlinsky condemned the move, pledging an appeal and emphasizing the party’s stance for a ceasefire, diplomacy and nuclear‑war prevention. On the eve of voting, a Yabloko election observer in St. Petersburg reported losing consciousness after being “subjected to force” by police, and the party accused authorities of denying its monitors access to polling stations and restricting their movement.

The election has unfolded amid a wave of cyber and physical attacks that officials say aim to disrupt the vote. Ella Pamfilova, chair of the Central Election Commission, disclosed that more than 1,000 distributed denial‑of‑service attacks targeted election infrastructure in recent days, describing the impact as “very high” and attributing the assaults to “highly professional, well‑coordinated groups using artificial intelligence tools.” Simultaneously, Moscow experienced its “largest‑scale attack” since the war began, with Governor Sergey Sobyanin reporting that Russian air defences have downed over 1,600 drones nationwide since Saturday, including 450 heading toward the capital. Several drones struck a Moscow refinery and a residential building, though no fatalities were reported there; in the broader Moscow Oblast, two people were killed, according to Governor Andrey Vorobyov.

Ukrainian officials have claimed responsibility for the recent strikes, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirming attacks on a key oil facility and a logistics hub in the Moscow region. He framed the operations as a response to Russia’s intensified campaign, noting that Moscow has launched more than 2,000 attack drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 19 missiles against Ukraine in the same week. Sobyanin accused Kyiv of attempting to “disrupt” the elections, linking the drone barrage directly to the voting process. The convergence of electoral proceedings, suppression of anti‑war voices, and coordinated cyber‑physical assaults underscores the heightened stakes of Russia’s political landscape as the Duma’s 450 seats are filled.

⚡ Effects Interpreter